Desktops

Editors' Office Hours free-for-all

Tom Merritt joins in on the fun with Brian Tong and opens the floor to any tech questions you can dish out. Offer up your worst, for these gallant men dread not.

34:27 / 25 October 2008

Transcript

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>> Hey, what's up guys? Welcome to Editor's Office Hours. We have the man, Mister Tom Merritt here.
>> Howdy.
>> For the first time, I'm hosting the show and you're the guest. Normally, it's the other way around, right.
>> Right, you never had me on Crave after you took over.
>> You're never available.
>> I wanted an appearance on Crave so bad that they even like, Brian, oh, my God.
>> Anyways. We've got the man, you know him, you love him, Tom Merritt's here on Editor's Office Hours. We're basically gonna answer whatever questions you guys have, anything you want. It can be about shows, recent videos we did, some of the latest news topics, specific questions you have for us. Yeah, I don't know.
>> Television shows that you should watch.
>> Yeah. Things we like, we're gonna talk about them. And all you have to do is up here in the, is it here? No, it's here. Here in the right hand corner, you have a little box that says submit a question, just type it in, if you're not registered with CNET.com, it'll just ask you for a quick user name, password, and email, and then, you'll be able to participate and we'll jump to your questions. First of all, like, how was your weekend, dude?
>> It was good, it was good.
>> Did you do anything techie because, you know?
>> Yeah, I did a little research on Boxee,
>> Boxee, oh, okay.
>> That plug in, that hack for Apple TV that allows you to expand the Apple TV. So I think I might shot that as an insider secret tomorrow. I didn't actually do it though, cause the thing is, this is one of the problems of working at CNET is that, it's like, I got the Boxee thing and I went through the instructions, I saw how it worked. I'm like, oh, this is pretty easy. I'm just gonna flash it to a drive and I'm like, wait, I can't do it yet, cause then I'd have to undo it.
>> Ha, ha, yeah, yeah, yeah.
>> And then, I need to do it when I shoot it.
>> You need another Apple TV or do it, and then, like, reformat your Apple TV.
>> I don't want to do it
>> [Inaudible] lot of TV shows this week.
>> Like Torchwood, I've been catching up on the Torchwoods.
>> What's?
>> It's a BBC mara-, I'm sorry, a BBC series.
>> Mm-hmm.
>> It's a spin off of the doctor, of the new doctor who -
>> Got it.
>> I watched True Blood, Entourage.
>> Excellent. Okay, well, what we're gonna do with Tom is -
>> Baseball.
>> Baseball. What we're gonna do with Tom is basically ask him questions. We have two already in the cue. Keep on firing them away for you guys that just want to know anything and I guess we could just start off. This one is from DiggDoug [assumed spelling].
>> Yeah.
>> DiggDoug is a regular here and we like him.
>> He's in early. Eleven eleven AM. It's like, I'm in, I'm out.
>> He's ready to roll. Okay, DiggDoug asks us, okay, we all know you're both Mac heads, I mean, I use both platforms.
>> I'm not a Mac head. I'm a platform agnostic.
>> Before, even before, I mean, you recently worked on a Mac within about a year or so?
>> I got a Mac in January.
>> Okay. So, you know?
>> I've had Macs before in my life.
>> Mm-hmm.
>> And I use, I like to use Linux, especially a Boo-Too Linux.
>> Yep, any Boo-Too questions, fire them away cause [inaudible].
>> I get the reputation for being a Mac head because Veronica was the Mac head on Buzz Out Loud and when she left, I had to try to take up the devil's advocate side of Apple stuff because Molly was, you know, very antagonistic to everything, Windows Vista as well as Apple, so I think that may be where that came from.
>> Cool. So, DiggDoug, maybe I'll have you go first, what you think. New MacBooks on the fourteenth? What have you guys heard?
>> I've heard that they will give you a large aluminum block and you'll carve it, no, I'm just kidding. There's that big story out about how Apple might start its own manufacturing process using lasers and large aluminum blocks to carve out cases.
>> And water cutting.
>> Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Lasers and water cutting, pretty cool stuff. But, as far as the MacBooks coming out on the fourteenth, I think, I think, first of all, that's a rumor that it's gonna be MacBooks. It's actually not even, have the invites even gone out? Or is this still a rumor to the announcement?
>> No. There still has not been an official statement saying we're gonna have an announcement. You know, normally, the media knows, like, two weeks in advance.
>> Yeah.
>> Or maybe a week in advance.
>> I think it's likely that there will be an announcement. I think if there is an announcement, it's more than likely, it'll be about MacBooks, it'll be about laptops. And I don't think you're gonna see anything crazy new.
>> Yeah. Yeah, everyone's been talking about, oh, it could potentially be a touch screen. I don't think they're there yet. No, the whole touch screen laptop, touch a tablet.
>> Yeah, I don't think it's gonna be a tablet. I think, I think there will be something, there's always got to be something unique, otherwise, they wouldn't be having an announcement. So, I think you may see some touch, some expansion on the touch part of the track pad.
>> Mm-hmm.
>> I think you might see, maybe get a look at Snow Leopard. Meow. Which is kind of the incremental version from Leopard that they're gonna come out with. It's the next version of OS ten. Maybe we'll get a surprise announcement. But they've got to refresh that MacBook line going into the holiday season.
>> Without a doubt. And it's been about a year since the refresh before that happened so the time is right.
>> Yeah, absolutely. And then, I think, you know, how we're talking about we don't think anything crazy or revolutionary will come out. If they had something that was really out of the box or revolutionary, I think they would hold onto it for Mac World anyways because that's the show where they cater to the consumer. You know, we have the iPhone. We had the MacBook era which had, you know, different, you know, the pulse was different about how people felt about that. But, Mac World is the flagship show for Apple. They're not gonna release a flagship brand new product on October Fourteenth.
>> No, I figure, I think you're gonna see a line refresher and the likely line will be the MacBooks.
>> Mm-hmm. Okay. Cool. So we're getting more questions. I don't know if you want to take a scan. Okay, here we go. Let's jump to this one from Inaps [assumed spelling].
>> Uh-huh.
>> A little further down. I think it's BOL related for you.
>> Yep You want me to read it?
>> Yeah, yeah.
>> Hey, Tom, this is actually Radio from the BOL chat room. Hey, Radio. I can't afford an iMac. Can I get an Apple Mini and use my Windows monitor keyboard and mouse? Yes, you can. Now, if your Windows keyboard and mouse are USB, you got no problems there.
>> Mm-hmm.
>> Cause all the connections on the iMac or the Apple Mini are USB. Windows monitor, you'll need an adaptor, that's pretty much it cause, again, all the Apple products have the DVI out, like this little port instead of the VGA port so your Windows monitor, if it has a DVI connection on it, you're good, but if it, more likely, as it more likely does, has a VGA connection, then you'd need an adaptor, but yeah, you should be able to use all that stuff.
>> Cool. Yeah.
>> You know, the problem is, if you have a PS2 mouse or a PS2 keyboard, that's the older connector.
>> Serial connector, I think.
>> I don't know if there's, is there an adaptor to go PS2 to USB?
>> You know they do make them.
>> Make the hub, yeah.
>> There's a company called Keyspan that made an accessory that went from that serial adaptor to USB, but because it's been, you know, for the most part now, it's mostly USB based. I don't know if it's still readily available. They used to have them at Apple stores. So, but the company's called Keyspan and I definitely know they have an adaptor. I think it's around twenty, twenty-five dollars for it, but it does exist, so.
>> The short answer is yes; it may or may not take some work.
>> Mm-hmm. All right. Cool. We have a lot of people that ask us these questions but I think it's always good to kind of refresh people's memory because it's still pretty hot at the top. We have a question from Pac Gamer and Pac Gamer asks us, what are you views on Google's G one? I've talked about it before here on Office Hours so maybe you could kind of spit off the top of your head.
>> Yeah, I mean.
>> What do you think about it [inaudible]?
>> It's fancy. I don't think it's all that great looking. It's more of a question of what do you think of android because G one, first generation phone. Never get a first generation phone.
>> Yeah.
>> It's on T mobile which, if you're gonna have to be lucky enough to have an area where T mobile is a good carrier, here in the Bay Area, it's not one of the better carriers as far as reception. As far as being able to get a signal. I know a lot of people with T mobile that they do just fine but they complain about it. So, G one is interesting in being able to look at it and see what it does. As a consumer, I would hold off.
>> Okay. And also, just the adoption of T mobile doesn't really have three G networks in place yet.
>> They do.
>> They have a few.
>> They do but it's not -
>> But their coverage is very initial for them.
>> It's not for them, right.
>> Compared to at least how it's established, AT&T is just -
>> They're also on a different three G than AT&T which is not necessarily a big deal if you're gonna buy a G one, but as far as, like, buying an unlocked phone.
>> Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
>> It can be problematic.
>> Okay. Cool. I don't know, you want to take a look over there?
>> Yeah, is that we're gonna bounce back -
>> Yeah, yeah. We'll just do that.
>> [Inaudible] says, hey, Tom, is there any decent video editing software for Linux, specifically, a Boo-Too eight-oh-four? I'm used to Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas on the Windows side of things. Yeah. I just ran across something recently and I can't recall the name, video editing on a Boo-Too, specifically. And let me see if I can pull that up. If you want to tap dance or sing a song.
>> Okay. I can.
>> I can probably find the answer to that. I just saw a blog posting this weekend about it and I think, no, that's old. I just need to find a name but, apparently, there is a, there's a video editing software that's gaining some popularity amongst the Boo-Too crowd.
>> Yeah, unfortunately, I have no knowledge on this one for, at least for the new Boo-Too stuff.
>> Uh, let's see, I've got video editing of Boo-Too at Wiki, at Wiki dot shomedo [assumed spelling] dot com and they recommend Audacity for the audio. They recommend VLC for the cropping and editing. That's not what I heard. That's not the thing I'm thinking of, though.
>> Let's, you know, low level all the [inaudible].
>> This is just like how to do all the different stuff.
>> But it's like a full on application, at least, that gives you more than, kind of, some basic stuff?
>> Yeah. There was something out, that was, that was really getting some traction. I'll keep poking around for it and we'll see what we can come up with.
>> So what we could do right now, I mean, this actually might be a perfect time, guys, keep on sending your questions up in the right hand box. We can go to video, maybe you can talk about it a little bit. You did a video about the Tomato router. Can you kind of give a little preface on what that is. I have not idea what we're talking about.
>> Yeah, Blender, sorry, video editing in Blender for Boo-Too. I think that may be what it was. So, I'll throw that out there. Okay, so the Tomato router.
>> Yes.
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>> Tomato is one of many different third-party firmwares that you can put on your router. See, now you go buy one of those little Wi-Fi routers and it's sitting over there in the corner and, all of a sudden, you start to come across different functionalities that you wish your router could do, like, look around on a site survey and found out what Wi-Fi signals are available in your area. What part of the spectrum they're using so that you can move to a different one and you don't collide with each other. It can track your bandwidth so you know exactly if you've got multiple devices on that network, exactly how much bandwidth are you using via the router? It can log that for you. And it's as simple as plugging in your router to your laptop with the Tomato firmware download, picking the correct firmware for your machine, which means you have to turn it over and look at, maybe the serial number, maybe the model number, and then, look up the read me, actually read the read-me file.
>> Actually do that.
>> Then pull in the proper firmware and now you've got a brand new way to operate your router. Turns out you don't like it, you can always go to the manufacturer's website, download the firmware for your router, and re-flash it to the router. But flashing the firmware, while it sounds really hard, it's a matter of pressing down, you know, upload, selecting a file, and uploading it to the router.
>> So, everything you said will probably be on the video that we're picking to play here?
>> Yeah, on the video actually, we'll actually show you how to do it.
>> Cool, okay. We will catch you guys in a few minutes. Sit tight with us and keep on sending your questions in.
>> I just bought a new router and have this old Linksys WRT fifty-four GS just lying around now. But rather than ditch it, I'm gonna give it some new life with new third-party firmware. It's pretty easy. I'm Tom Merritt from CNET.com, I'll show you how to it on today's Insider Secrets.
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>> Every router like this one has software that runs on it and what we're talking about is changing that software from the factory default to an open source version. And whether you're replacing your old router or you're just frustrated with your new one, there are a few reasons you might want to do this. My Linksys here can only act as an access point for turning my internet into a wireless. Now, the Tomato firmware, that's the firmware I'm gonna put on here, will allow it to act as a bridge, allowing machines in my house that don't have Wi-Fi access to the network wirelessly. It can also act as site survey tool giving me the strengths of nearby networks and letting me know which frequencies they occupy. Now, in a crowded neighborhood, this can help you reduce interference on your network tremendously. Tomato also has a bandwidth usage monitor. If your ISP has a cap on bandwidth, this is indispensible in telling it you're close to the cap. There are also other features like Wake-on-LAN, static DHCP, and more. So how do you do it? Well, there are many third-party firmwares out there. Some work better with specific routers. Look around at DD-WRT, FreeWRT, Terrifa [assumed spelling], others to find one that works with your router. I'm gonna use Tomato which says it works with the Linksys WRT fifty-four GS versions one through versions four. Look underneath your router for a serial number, or more specific, model number to match it up. Then, download the firmware, extract it to a folder, read the read me file to determine which file goes with your router. Then, connect your router to your computer. Open the router's admin screen as described in your manual, or just look it up on a search engine. Click administration, click firmware upgrade, select and upload the correct firmware for your router. And you want to wait for about two minutes while the firmware is uploaded and flashed. Then, it should reload to the Tomato screen. Now, Tomato advises you may want to reset the settings to default to avoid any minor incompatibilities between the Linksys firmware and the Tomato firmware. Also, you'll probably want to browse around the FAQ at Polarcloud.com for more info on how to use the new firmware. That's it for this Insider Secret. I'm Tom Merritt, CNET.com.
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>> Okay, we are back. Hopefully, that video helped you guys out for a lot of people are really interested in how to track their bandwidth because of that whole Comcast cap issue so it's really something that's relevant to almost anyone that is using Comcast with is a lot of people, at least I know, in the Bay area.
>> Absolutely. That's part of the reason but it's also a good way to make use of, like I said, old router stuff.
>> Okay. So before we jump into questions, you were talking about how your catching up with your TV.
>> Yeah. And so, is there a lot of shows that, like, you know, you haven't had the time to watch during the week because -
>> Actually, it's more with the Torchwood thing, it's a show that I always meant to watch and never did. So, then I finally sampled it on HD Net, actually on television, but it was in the middle of season two. So I started watching it there and decided, you know what, I want to go back to the beginning and catch up. So, I actually am buying it from iTunes, $1.99 an episode.
>> Wow.
>> Which, because they're not streaming it anywhere else and I could pirate it but I decided to play by the rules.
>> Ah, good Tommy boy.
>> I know. I'm such a Pollyanna.
>> Well, that actually kind of could lead to this question that we have from Engineer Chick and she's asking about, you know, is there actually a single set top box that can really get, you know, these different type of streaming videos whether they're from iTunes or different sources. Let me just read the question here.
>> Sure.
>> It says, Tom and Brian, I'm looking for a set top box that will stream iTunes, Netflix, and Amazon movies and TV shows to my HDTV, as well as, play media from my home server. Is there one single box that does it all?
>> Yeah, take your Netflix Rowcou [assumed spelling], your TiVo and your Apple TV and tape them together. No.
>> Tape them.
>> That's a tough one. Now, the easy answer here is a media center PC because a media center PC would be able to run iTunes, it's be able to stream Netflix in Internet Explorer, and be able to stream your Amazon on box purchases or download to play them. But that is probably the most expensive way of doing that. So, on the cheap, there's the Popcorn Hour router but it won't stream the iTunes DRM stuff.
>> And most of those -
>> And it's not gonna stream Netflix, so it really doesn't apply.
>> Basically, all those set top boxes that aren't, whatever, Apple TVs, they're not gonna be able to stream Apple DRM stuff because, you know, we were talking about it during the break, the Xbox three-sixty, there's those little software program called Connect Three-Sixty from Knoll River software that allows you to play your music from iTunes but if it's DRM protected which all the store bought stuff is, most of it.
>> Mm-hmm.
>> Except the iTunes plus stuff, then you can't play it.
>> And when you said yeah, all the TV shows, all the TV shows are DRM coming from iTunes. So, really, the only easy answer that I can think of is a media center PC. Try to get something stripped down that has a TV tuner card attached to it. But there's not one box that does it all, yet. Yet. Although, Netflix, Rowcou, I'm sorry, Rowcou keeps making noises about how they're gonna expand the streaming abilities. That iTunes part, though, that's the part that's gonna always gum you up.
>> Yeah.
>> Because Apple doesn't want anybody else but Apple to be able to play it. So maybe you could take an Apple TV and mod it with Boxee, frankly.
>> And see if you could [inaudible].
>> Because that's the whole point of Boxee is being able to stream stuff. I don't know if you'd be able to stream the Amazon unboxed though.
>> Yeah. I haven't played with the Boxee service.
>> Certainly not gonna be able to stream Netflix with it, so no, that's not gonna work either.
>> Cool.
>> Cool.
>> Okay. Hopefully, that helped you out. It says, here's a question maybe you want to try, ah, take whatever question you want. It doesn't matter.
>> What's the one? Which one are you looking at?
>> Where was it at? Oh, someone asked, this is more of a personal, Wogus [assumed spelling]?
>> Wogus, where's Wogus?
>> Right here, oh, wait. As soon as you scroll up.
>> Olivia Harris.
>> Oh, there's always ones coming in.
>> Bradman.
>> It's, the questions, basically, here, I'll read it for you. It says, from Wogus, is Tom, do you still play World of Warcraft? If so, give us some details about your character.
>> Oh, you know, I haven't played Warcraft in a couple of months now but my character was an undead [inaudible] and I left it at twenty-third level.
>> And you have a life outside of that so you stopped touching your undead [inaudible]?
>> You know what? Even when I was playing it, it wasn't, it wasn't like all consuming. I was just going in, you know, at times when I would normally play some other sort of video game or watch a television show so it's not like I was stealing time from the great cancer solving project that I would otherwise be doing. I like Warcraft. I think it, I think it's fun and I don't, I understand that people are going to get sucked into it and it can take over their lives because it's very immersive, but I also think that those people are probably the kind of people who are gonna get sucked into a lot of [inaudible] so it's not Warcraft's fault.
>> Yeah, that's true. Talking about a game that you can get sucked into, I don't know if you've heard about it much, but have you heard of the game from Sony for PS three called Little Big Planet? Have you heard anything about this game?
>> Little Big Planet, no.
>> It's basically, to really make it a quick summary, it's a platformer game so, you know, you have, like, your old school Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog type game.
>> Mm-hmm.
>> On a two D kind of scale but what this game allows you is ultimate creation, and so, there's a lot of social community aspects to where you'll have these levels that are, you know, kind of two D platformer levels but within the game, it has a ridiculous creation engine where you can create your own levels, and then, publish them and other people who are playing the game.
>> Ah, that's cool.
>> Can play your levels. You have four players going on at once. I just got access to the beta of it and it's ridiculous. It looks kind of, when I first heard about it, I'm, like, oh, whatever. It's just gonna be kind of a corny game. But there's so much creativity and so much charm to the game, I'm super excited about that.
>> What's it cost?
>> Uh, I think it's gonna be sixty dollars. So, Little Big Planet, I'm just telling you, look for it.
>> And no ongoing cost? Just sixty bucks?
>> No, no ongoing cost.
>> That's pretty cool.
>> Yeah, yeah, no ongoing cost.
>> Got a question here from Pacgamer [assumed spelling]. It says, what would you say is your most used gadget?
>> Well, I know mine.
>> My laptop is my most used gadget. I have got Lois, she's a MacBook Pro, dual boot, Windows and OS ten and also VM ware running on it, or running Windows XP. But, when you say gadget, you probably don't mean laptop, right, so, my phone, of course. Yeah, I have the phone that Apple makes.
>> He is a Mac head.
>> Yeah, I mean, I left my laptop at home, accidentally, on a trip and I was able to do almost everything I would have done on the phone. So Smart Phone, that's, they really have become the ultimate gadget.
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>> Yeah. And also, like you said, when you left your laptop at home, I tried to just see how much I could actually do without a laptop, with iPhone, and let you know, I rarely bring my laptop around, at least, you know, if I, before where I could kind of be, like, I think I might need to bring my laptop to browse the web, I don't even think about it any more. I just bring my iPhone.
>> I couldn't do the Darma initiative online game where you're taking tests. You couldn't do that very easily on the iPhone. It's kind of hard to read some sites because, just because you don't have much of a screen. I wanted to respond to some mail on a laptop rather than having to use that [inaudible] keyboard.
>> Yeah, that's true.
>> That was about it, though, as far as what I couldn't do, really.
>> For you, for your fingers, how do you like the keyboard? Cause my fingers are small so I have an easy time.
>> It took me about a year to finally get to where I can type regularly on it. But I still don't want to do anything long form. I just want to do short stuff cause there is pain in my brain when I use it.
>> Okay. Very cool. Here's a question from LukaX [assumed spelling] two three, and he or she asks, hey, guys, what do you think of the new iPod Nano? Do you think it is as sexy as the third generation version? I know right off the bat that third generation was kind of the short chubby Danny DeVito, I compared it to Danny DeVito and -
>> So the new one for you is what you're saying.
>> Yeah.
>> Or, you think Danny DeVito is sexy. So what's your answer?
>> Come on, you know -
>> I know where you're at.
>> Yeah, I like the, I call, the thinner one is the Keira Knightley versus Danny DeVito.
>> Ooh, wow. That's quite a difference.
>> Yeah.
>> Frankly, I think the second, the old Nano, the first, I think that was the sleekest looking one. The new one's taller, you know, so, it's all right. I'm just never a big Nano fan anyway. They're too limited for me.
>> Well, yeah, for working out.
>> Although I do live with only sixteen gigs now on my phone so I guess I've given up that. But because it can do all those other things, and so, I'm willing to live within that. I, for a long time, I was like, no, I need iPod with as many gigabytes as possible. It's like I have my whole library on there. I don't live that way any more. Things have changed.
>> You evolved, Tom.
>> Hal two Z [assumed spelling] has an interesting question, says, could you post CNET Live on Thursdays after they are taped? I can't catch the show live and sometimes forget to watch Fridays so there are times I don't see it until Saturday or Sunday. Yes. That is going to happen, actually. It was the encoding process that was making it take so long to post. And we have changed that encoding process so that it can be much faster. I think this last week there was a little bit of technical difficulty which is always, you know, gonna be something unforeseen. But the idea's that CNET Live will post much faster after the live taping which is Thursdays at four PM Eastern, one PM Pacific, ten AM Hawaiian.
>> Ten AM Hawaiian. All right, here we go, another question from Wogus. Tom and Brian, every consider switching outfits? Brian would look sweet and Tom, I just can't picture it.
>> Yeah, no, I've never considered that. Probably never. I'd consider it and say no.
>> We've talked about going shopping together though.
>> Yeah.
>> For clothes. That's the truth.
>> I don't think that what works on Brian's gonna work [inaudible].
>> Your hair, why don't we just start it gradually? You can put on the handcuff necklace right now.
>> Yeah. So, do you have a key? Cause I don't want this thing to get stuck around my head.
>> Take it home and tell me what your wife [inaudible].
>> That's not bad, actually. That works. That's all right. We're not gonna switch shirts though. It's not that kind of show.
>> Oh, Tom is so street, man.
>> Bradman one two three, that's me, baby. Rural route, if by street, you mean country road. Bradman one two three says, I'm in the market for a new laptop but I'm concerned about Vista. Are there any downsides to a Mac? Downsides to a Mac, well, depends on what software you have. If you've got a bunch of Window software and you get a Mac, then, it's gonna cost extra to be able to run that software on your Mac because you're gonna have to buy a new copy of Windows, or pirate one, which is illegal. So, unless you want to break the law, you're gonna have to copy it. I'm messing with my mic here.
>> He's not used to the placement of the chain.
>> And the Macs are not terribly much more expensive for what you get than PCs, but you can't, you can get much cheaper PCs if you go Windows. So there's a couple of cost considerations there. Otherwise, I think OS ten does pretty much everything. There's lots of great open source programs available for OS ten. It's based on Unix so that you get a tiny bit more security caused it's based on what, free [inaudible], right? So, you know, I wouldn't be too concerned about Vista. If you're living in a Windows World, you got to a lot Window software and you can find a good, like, sub one thousand dollar Vista laptop, you're probably gonna be fine. Vista's not having the problems that it did at launching.
>> Okay, excellent.
>> You got another one?
>> Sure, this one is from let's try and get, I'm trying to find someone who hasn't asked us, okay, here we go. This one is from Peter A. Norris, I believe that's correct.
>> If that's your real name.
>> Do you know who that is?
>> It just sounds made up.
>> The question is, I want to store and share family photos and videos with family members around the world. Is there a good solution for this?
>> That's a good Brian Cooley question. He's always into this stuff. I mean, for sharing, there's SmugMug and Flicker. The problem is, not the problem, but with Flicker, unless you pay, you only get to store up to a certain amount, and then, your stuff is still there but you don't get, it's not visible or available for sharing any more. And then, with SmugMug, you have to pay after a certain time period. Those are, but they're both good services, and then, Picasa, actually, from Google is another one that's good and they give you some third-party, or not third-party, they give you some installable software to manage and share. If you're on a Mac, you can share photos through dot Mac but you got to pay for that. That's ninety-nine bucks a year, well, yeah, seventy-nine bucks a year now.
>> I think it's ninety-nine still, actually. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
>> So, you know, those are ones I know about. You got any other photo sharing?
>> No, I mean, to me it's like, Flicker is like, you know, kind of the universal one. It's easy and it's convenient, you know.
>> It's not a great storage solution. It's a good sharing solution though. For online storage, you know, you can handle it two ways. You could use Flicker for free for sharing, for just throwing photos out there, and then, you could go and use like an Amazon S three or Carbonite or, you know, some other backup service just to store the photos and have them backed up. Or local storage. Buy a hard drive, they're cheap.
>> Yeah. I mean, that's the best way to just back it up, have it click to access and, you know, you'll never lose it. So. DiggDoug wants to know, do you think Apple will let Flash onto the iPhone now that Adobe has made it. Cause Adobe's safe.
>> Okay, we may have Flash that works on the iPhone. It's in your court Apple.
>> Well, they just announced that they did have a version for it, you know, I guess an Apple approved version.
>> Yeah.
>> Or one that they were considering. So, I think it's a matter of time.
>> Rubber meets the road. Come on, Apple, what are you waiting on?
>> Yeah. It's just up to them.
>> No, I don't think they will.
>> At all?
>> No.
>> I think Apple, well, maybe not at all, but they will delay this as long as possible.
>> Yeah.
>> My theory is that Apple is really, really trying to see how far they can push Quick Time as an online format. And possibly, they've got a little something, something under way to put out their own version of a silver like or flash.
>> Is that kind of what you've heard?
>> No. This is gut, making this up.
>> Okay.
>> Just totally making this up. I have heard about the Quick Time thing. I've not heard about any secret projects. But I'm saying, that wouldn't be outside of Apple, and if you look at their history, to have something like that to push onto the market. So, I have a feeling that Apple's dragging their heels on flash support and they're gonna drag it for a little longer.
>> Mm, okay.
>> What do you think?
>> Sorry, I was reading a question, like, as you were finishing up.
>> Oh, what's the question?
>> I was like, hmm, interesting. It was, well, someone wrote, this is CLY, he wrote, how soon before we see a Tong-Cooley Smackdown? Cooley said he wanted to put Tong over his knee. It would make a great special. When did Cooley say that?
>> I guess it was the week I was gone when he and Molly were on.
>> Oh. Yeah, because, see, he's, Cooley has yet to respond to my little tirade about him.
>> Uh-huh.
>> And it was, it was all about love but, you know, I just had to let him know how I felt.
>> I think you should prize fight each other. I'll referee.
>> Yeah, you can be the third party referee.
>> But Brian, which Brian?
>> Battle of the Brians.
>> Olivia Harris says Jeanie from the BOL channel refuses to get in here because this is trying to kill the IRC chat. Any possibilities of combining both and moving to IRC? Well, I know that we're trying to bring the watch BOL.com which is where the IRC chat is, into the CNET universe and integrate them. Would we ever do IRC chat along with this, producer man? Anthony? Ask the boss [inaudible]. I wouldn't mind that. What's nice about this is, we can moderate the questions so I think we should have both so that we can have a free flowing chat room that we can check in on and see what's going on there.
>> I think the hard part is that we're trying to get through these questions and answer them for you and neither of us is really, we don't have someone focusing on what's going on in the actual chat room.
>> Yeah, it would be too much to try to do any kind of orderly question. You've seen the chat room flying by. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't have a chat room.
>> I don't got three eyeballs, man.
>> You don't. Well, actually, you have a pineal gland, but that doesn't really count. Although it is light photosensitive, it's not outside of your forehead.
>> Okay, thank you.
>> We'll get into some more biology the next time I'm on the show.
>> You know, next time, it should be a focus on biology, Tom, the biology prof.
>> Yeah.
>> I'd like to see how far that one goes.
>> See how many inaccuracies I, I just got into the IRC chat room to say hello. Hello. Everyone's like sad.
>> We haven't forgotten about you.
>> Okay, we'll take, it's twelve o'clock right now and we'll take two questions, two real quick ones.
>> Two more.
>> Just kind of to wrap this up.
>> Don't have to go home but you can't stay here.
>> Yeah, man, these questions keeps on [inaudible] so it keeps on moving the one that I was just looking at.
>> What do you think of the ASUS EPC? Is it a good deal for what it is? Yeah, Nick and Tina, I think it's a good deal for what it is, absolutely. Especially the Linux version, cause if you do have Windows laying around, you can put on there and you can dual boot it. But, it just doesn't, for me, I need to have, and this is following my pattern that I mentioned earlier about, I have to have all my music on my iPod, and then, the iPhone came along and I'm like, well, I guess I can live without it. Right now, I still feel like, I want to have a hard drive where I can download and install a lot of things and have all the options that I have so I can carry that big old MacBook Pro around with me. But, there might come a day where one of these NetBooks really catches my eye and has all the features that I can't have, somehow, with my MacBook. But the only one really is weight, I mean, it's the light weight. Otherwise, I get to do a whole lot more with the bigger laptop. So, for me, it's not -
>> [Inaudible]
>> But if you don't care about having that much storage with you, or if your storage is accessible on the net, maybe that's what it would be that would bring me over to the NetBook side. I think the EPC is a great deal.
>> Okay. Killer. And then, this last question we have, thanks guys for writing everything but we're gonna wrap this up. This is from FatMoKid [assumed spelling].
>> FatEmoKid [assumed spelling].
>> FatEmoKid.
>> Yes, he bought my wife's iPhone.
>> Seriously?
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. Well, he asks, [inaudible] Tom and Brian, I was wondering if you have used the Zune [assumed spelling]and your thoughts on the newest version of the software, cordially, FatEmoKid. I've just recently did a prize fight, actually, with, that's coming out this week, with actually, I think it's releasing tomorrow, with the latest Zune three G flash base versus the iPod fourth generation Nano. And so, I didn't get to play with the software, I mean, I've been able play with the earlier Zune. I don't know how much time you're had to hands on with the Zune. A little bit?
>> I've had very little hands on with the Zune so I can't say too much about it. But, you know, I know that Cooley likes it. I know that Molly fell out of love with it. I think the new version makes it better. I still think Microsoft is moving along and third version of that Zune is the one that's going to bring it into play. The problem with that strategy for Microsoft is that MP Three players are becoming PDAs.
>> Mm-hmm.
>> They're becoming something that's sort of a specialty device that nobody buys in bulk any more. They're not there yet, don't get me wrong. But they're getting there.
>> They're evolving.
>> And so, unless there becomes with a Zune phone, I think that's where people are going. They're going to instinct, they're going to Dare, they're going to the Apple phone. So, I don't see people really buying MP three players in greater and greater numbers and that's what's bad news for the Zune. As the Zune gets better and better.
>> And then, our FatEmoKid leads specifically to how was the software? I mean, I love, I actually, the Zune is underrated because people automatically dismiss it because they're like, oh, whatever, iPod. I'm telling you, the Zune player has a lot of compelling features that make it really fun. If you do, if you're into the subscription service, or you like doing that type of stuff, called Zune Pass, there's actually a feature in it called channels, and essentially, these are created playlists or [inaudible] made by Zune or they could also be like a specific person who has, like, a group of songs that you kind of follow, almost like an RSS feed. It's a list and it changes every day and you can get an update of different music, and then you can, you know, purchase those songs right off the bat. It always just keeps your collection fresh, but the fact that you can have access to that, listen to it, it's really nice. And honestly, I do like the Zune interface.
>> Yeah.
>> It's not ugly, it's not stupid, it's surprisingly pretty dang good.
>> The new Zunes aren't as chunky as the old ones, too, so that's a good thing.
>> I mean, I got to give [inaudible] I used to be a Zune hater, to be honest, and then, once I started really digging into it, it's not, it's not that bad of a device at all, so, hopefully that helps you guys. Okay, that's, I think that's gonna do it for today. My voice is like shot out. Can you tell?
>> All gone.
>> Okay. Thanks a lot for coming in, Tommy.
>> Always good to be here.
>> And then, tomorrow, we will have the Boom, Bonnie [inaudible].
>> Ah, it's gonna be like Crave in here.
>> Yeah, I guess it's gonna be like Crave. I don't know.
>> Crave with questions.
>> Trying to see what type of prank I can pull on her. But thanks for coming again. Eleven thirty P, sorry, eleven thirty AM, west coast time, two thirty PM, east coast time, we'll see you guys tomorrow.
^M00:34:20
[ music ]

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